After Hours Bar

Discussion in 'Other Reminiscences' started by Ken Anderson, Jun 2, 2021.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    As I have mentioned several times in this forum, I have never had a problem with drinking. In my entire life, I don't think I have been drunk more than three times, and I get drunk pretty easily. At high school parties, I would carry the same bottle of beer around all night and dump most of it out when no one was looking.

    However, I enjoyed hanging out with people who did. People who are drunk can be amusing when you are not yourself drunk, so I was at plenty of parties. Consequently, I was arrested three times for being a minor in possession of beer, although I didn't drink.

    There was a rather seedy bar on 13th Street in Menominee, Michigan that would serve minors after they closed to adults at 2:00 am. This was the kind of bar where serious alcoholics would hang out until the state-mandated closing time. The owner would then close the bar and lock the doors, using some kind of black-out curtain on the front windows. After about 2:30 am, high school kids could knock on the back door and he'd let them in. He wouldn't let anyone in unless they came with someone else who he was familiar with, so it was kind of a privilege when he let people in because they came with you. You couldn't park a car in his back parking lot, though. I suppose a full parking lot at 4:00 am would raise suspicions.

    During regular hours, he would sometimes sell cases of beer from the back door too, probably depending on who was in the bar at the time.

    This was a highly illegal way of staying open past 2:00 am and probably fostering new alcoholics who spend all day and all night at his bar after they reached adulthood. As far as I know, he was never caught for it.
     
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  2. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Looking at Bing Maps, I can see that the place is still open under the same name, although it's now known as Dino's Pine Knot, whereas it used to simply be Pine Knot. The guy who owned it then is surely dead by now, though. He wasn't very young then.
     
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  3. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    In most areas, that would be a fast-track to losing your license, even "back in the day." The only time I've seen bars openly serve minors was when the drinking age was 21 and the customer would come in in his military uniform. "Old enough to fight/old enough to drink."

    I've mentioned my drinking issues, but I really enjoyed going out after I quit. It's different being "present."
     
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  4. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    He had kids who weren't much older than thirteen in there.
     
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  5. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I think that was true in most places. The Menominee Police Department was not at all easy on minors in possession of beer, so I suspect he was never caught. I know that I wouldn't have wanted to be suspected of having turned him in, and I would have been more worried about his other after-hours customers than him, although I'm sure he could be rough, too.
     
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The first time I went there, he wouldn't let me in. I went with a friend who was a couple of years older than me. I was probably fifteen at the time. When he opened the door and saw me, he said, "What are you? Twelve? Get out of here!" I did look a lot younger than I was, I suppose.
     
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  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I have always looked younger than my age...WAY younger. I never tried to buy alcohol before I was legal, and I always got carded until I was in my thirties...this was before the "We ID Everyone Under 40" days. I was in 7-11 once and the clerk asked for my ID. The woman in line behind me said "You gotta be kidding! He's at least 30. Look at his crow's feet!!" I told her to either put on a smock and get behind the counter if she wanted to work here, or mind her own business.

    Conversely, I had a brother who could get away with anything. He was buying booze in the state ABC store when he was in high school (you had to be 21.)

    What infuriates me is when the state trains a girl who's underage but looks as though she's mid-20s, then plays a game of "gotcha!" with the store owner. Then this happened in Charlottesville in 2013:

    Plain-clothed cops "swatted" her and the poor kid freaked out. She spent the night in jail. As G.Gordon would say: Jack-booted thugs.
     
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  8. Joe Smith

    Joe Smith Very Well-Known Member
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    Bars,.. used to love them..... a long time ago!
     
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  9. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I never went to then, and lived in a different county than they were located, but there was a small city in Los Angeles County that had "afterhours bars".
     
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  10. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    This thread triggered a memory. I got thrown out of this bar once in 1968. :cool:

    upload_2021-6-3_2-15-2.png

    There were 4 of us. Two were brothers. Still remember their names, Dan and Joe. After they started drinking they got into a fist fight with each other. The owner asked us all to leave. I was told later they always got into a fight when they started drinking.
     
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    Last edited: Jun 3, 2021
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  11. Babs Hunt

    Babs Hunt Supreme Member
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    When I was a teenager there was a saying here in Louisiana that if you couldn't get in a bar by the time you were 16 and buy a drink...then you never were going to be able to get in one. That saying turned out to be mostly true...and I think it may have truth to it today too.
     
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  12. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    A guy I dated a couple of times in high school was shot and killed by the ABC. I'm sure he was drunk and disorderly, but seriously.
     
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